The String Quartets of Beethoven

The String Quartets of Beethoven
Author: William Kinderman
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252091620

"We do not understand music--it understands us." This aphorism by Theodor W. Adorno expresses the quandary and the fascination many listeners have felt in approaching Beethoven's late quartets. No group of compositions occupies a more central position in chamber music, yet the meaning of these works continues to stimulate debate. William Kinderman's The String Quartets of Beethoven stands as the most detailed and comprehensive exploration of the subject. It collects new work by leading international scholars who draw on a variety of historical sources and analytical approaches to offer fresh insights into the aesthetics of the quartets, probing expressive and structural features that have hitherto received little attention. This volume also includes an appendix with updated information on the chronology and sources of the quartets and a detailed bibliography.

The Beethoven Quartet Companion

The Beethoven Quartet Companion
Author: Robert Winter
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1994
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780520082113

"Reading The Beethoven Quartet Companion made me want to listen to the quartets again from a new sociological as well as musical perspective. It is an invaluable guide not only for professional and amateur musicians but also for anyone who is curious about culture and wants to find out more."--Yo-Yo Ma "These essays are the most readable, useful, and well-informed commentary available today on these masterworks. Michael Steinberg's 'program notes' to each quartet, directed at once to the musical beginner and to the expert, are as eloquent and persuasive as popular writing about music can get. . . . His essays are followed by equally expert and accessible contributions by other masters on The Master, providing literate music lovers with the context and equipment for a richer enjoyment and clearer understanding of these sixteen unique conversations among two violins, a viola, and a cello."--David Littlejohn, author of The Ultimate Art: Essays Around and About Opera "A fine collection of essays to assist the music lover in the seemingly endless quest to illuminate the Beethoven string quartets."--Arnold Steinhardt, The Guarneri String Quartet "This book delivers on the implied promise of its title--it provides a lively, readable, and wide-ranging introduction to the quartets. Readers at many levels of experience will find it profitable."--Lewis Lockwood, author of Beethoven: Studies in the Creative Process

The Critical Reception of Beethoven's Compositions by His German Contemporaries

The Critical Reception of Beethoven's Compositions by His German Contemporaries
Author: Wayne M. Senner
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1999-05-25
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780803212503

Compiled here are reviews, reports, notes, and essays found in German-language periodicals published between 1783 and 1830. The documents are translated into English with copious notes and annotations, an introductory essay, and indexes of names, subjects, and works. This volume contains a general section and documents on specific opus numbers up to opus 54, with musical examples redrawn from the original publications. ø The collection brings to light contemporary perceptions of Beethoven?s music, including matters such as audience, setting, facilities, orchestra, instruments, and performers as well as the relationship of Beethoven?s music to theoretical and critical ideas of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These documents, most of which appear in English for the first time, present a wide spectrum of insights into the perceptions that Beethoven?s contemporaries had of his monumental music.

Beethoven for a Later Age

Beethoven for a Later Age
Author: Edward Dusinberre
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2016-01-19
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0571317154

'They are not for you but for a later age!' Ludwig van Beethoven, on the Opus 59 quartets. Tackling the Beethoven quartets is a rite of passage that has shaped the Takács Quartet's work together for over forty years. Using the history of the composition and first performances of the quartets as the backbone to his story, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takács since 1993 - recounts the life of the Quartet from its inception in Hungary, through emigration to the US and its present-day life as one of the world's renowned string quartets. He also describes what it was like for him, as a young man fresh out of the Juilliard School, to join the Quartet as its first non-Hungarian member - an exhilarating challenge. Beethoven for a Later Age takes the reader inside the life of a quartet, vividly showing how four people enjoy making music together over a long period of time. The key, the author argues, is in balancing continuity with change and experimentation - a theme that also lies at the heart of Beethoven's remarkable compositions.

Beethoven String Quartet No. 4

Beethoven String Quartet No. 4
Author: Ludwig Van Beethoven
Publisher: Performer's Edition
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2009-02-18
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1442102985

Beethoven's String Quartet No. 4 (Opus 18, No. 4), is part of the set of 6 quartets that Beethoven wrote between 1798 and 1800. This is the Performer's Edition of the quartet, with clean print and easy to read markings designed for the performer. This version is a pocket score, sized at approximately half a standard sheet of paper for easy transport and use for performing musicians and students.

Beethoven: Grosse Fuge

Beethoven: Grosse Fuge
Author: Ludwig Van Beethoven
Publisher: Performer's Edition
Total Pages: 58
Release: 2009-12-30
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1450518656

Originally written as the finale of Beethoven's 13th Quartet (Op. 130), the Grosse Fuge was later published as a separate work following the poor reception of that quartet by the public. In its current form, the Grosse Fuge (Op. 134), has become much loved among Beethoven afficianados and is seen as one of his most "contemporary" works.

Beethoven's Theatrical Quartets

Beethoven's Theatrical Quartets
Author: Nancy November
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2014-01-09
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1107512425

Beethoven's middle-period quartets, Opp. 59, 74 and 95, are pieces that engage deeply with the aesthetic ideas of their time. In the first full contextual study of these works, Nancy November celebrates their uniqueness, exploring their reception history and early performance. In detailed analyses, she explores ways in which the quartets have both reflected and shaped the very idea of chamber music and offers a new historical understanding of the works' physical, visual, social and ideological aspects. In the process, November provides a fresh critique of three key paradigms in current Beethoven studies: the focus on his late period; the emphasis on 'heroic' style in discussions of the middle period; and the idea of string quartets as 'pure', 'autonomous' artworks, cut off from social moorings. Importantly, this study shows that the quartets encompass a new lyric and theatrical impetus, which is an essential part of their unique, explorative character.